Baramati to have a Textile Park

PUNE: Baramati, the union agriculture minister's pocket borough, is eyeing the status of a major industrial hub in the western Maharashtra region.

Having brought home Bharat Forge Ltd's (BFL) non-automotive processing and machining project to Baramati, the MIDC-promoted industrial area there will soon have a High Tech Textile Park. This 60 acre, Rs. 100 crore project where small apparel manufacturers will set up their units, is scheduled to come up in the next 18 months.

The textile park, which will mainly house small domestic garment manufacturers, is being set up under the central government's Scheme for Integrated Textile Parks (SITP).

Although 25 such Parks have been cleared, this could be the first where so much has happened in the month since the project was cleared. The land has been paid for by the 15 participating units, through the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) cre-ated for the purpose. The Baramati High Tech Textile Park, the SPV, has also signed an agreement with IL&FS, the nodal agency which will monitor the archi-tecture and infrastructure of the Textile Park.

"We are now in the process of getting our layout sanctioned," Santosh Kataria, managing director, Crystal International, said. Mr Kataria is setting up a new, 5 acre, Rs. 10 crore unit which will have capacities to produce 3,000 garments per day, which is an expansion of his Pune facilities. Currently, he is focusing on girls in the 0-12 year age group and will later expand to boys garments. For him, the expansion in the Baramati Textile Park is necessary for the launch of his line of branded garments for girls.

Under the SITP scheme of the government of India, the Rs. 100 crore textile park project will get a subsidy of Rs. 40 crore. The condition for availing the subsidy is that the park has to be completed in the 18 month time frame, Sunetra Pawar, chairperson, Baramati High Tech Textile Park, said. Mrs Pawar is the wife of Ajit Pawar, nephew of the union agriculture minister and himself minister for water resources and PWD in the state government.

Mr Kataria explained that this is not an SEZ, with no compulsion to export. In fact, he pointed to the booming domestic garment market, where realisations are far better than in the export. The apparel park has no fiscal benefits beyond the central government subsidy. Of the 15 participating units, who are share holders in the SPV, one is from Hyderabad, four from Mumbai, a couple from Baramati and the rest from Pune. A couple of spinning mills are also expected to be located in it.

Mrs Pawar said the textile park is expected to create 4-5,000 jobs for women al-though industry players maintained that they will have to bring in skilled labour. The Park has provision for common training facilities, which will help units up-grade the skills of the local work force.

The 60 acre Textile Park adjoins the BFL plant and is across the road from the Spentex yarn manufacturing plant of the Delhi-based CLC group.